Route to Market & Supply Chain Blog

The “Famous Last words” of people can be intriguing, rude and frequently very, very funny just as much as they can be complete nonsense. In the context of Supply Chain, “Famous Last Words” are usually uttered just before something disastrous or…

The EU has not welcomed any new member states since Bulgaria and Romania joined the club in 2007 but there is quite a queue knocking on the door and expecting the ok over the next few years. The hopefuls include a number of Southern European Balkan…

Some FMCG, Brewing, Pharmaceutical organisations are comfortable with the idea of using consultants while others avoid them like the plague. Having been on both sides of the fence with respect to supply chain consultancy services I can appreciate…

In a recent post I took a brief look at the use of Balanced Scorecards in FMCG, Brewing and Pharmaceutical businesses but in fact they are entirely appropriate for any business. Whatever your business size or offering you will benefit from knowing…

Sacred blue, mon petite pois, bonjour as Del Boy would say. Against all odds, a very young and experimental England rugby team defeated France in the 2012 6 Nations. Add in the fact that this match was in France and the home team had not lost there…

The merry-go-round continues in English football. Few will have been shocked by the sacking of Les Parry by Tranmere Rovers but the appointment of Ronnie Moore as his immediate replacement is a surprise. Having been sacked by Tranmere a few years…

If you are a CEO or MD of an FMCG, Brewing, Pharmaceutical company with a perceived good reputation for service and you operate a Call Centre or Customer Service Desk then you should personally try calling it from time to time. I don’t know about…

If you are running an FMCG factory the least welcome pack sizes will be something like 50g sachets of washing powder or 50ml tubes of toothpaste, i.e. relatively slow filling and low capacity. In multinationals these small pack skus are likely to…

Everyone in multi-national companies will have experienced the “data request from head office”. Usually arriving at the most inconvenient time, with unclear instructions and no clear reason-why! These data collection campaigns are often managed by…

The car bounced over the dirt road of potholes and approached the expansive, looming warehouse building that was once so full of life and bustling activity. Paper and plastic fast–food litter gathered up by the breeze blew across the distribution…

If you ask people to list disasters that have seriously affected supply chains you will probably get answers including the usual suspects, e.g. earthquake, tsunami, flood, volcanic eruption etc. Rarely would you find snow in the list of answers yet…

You may recall I took a light-hearted look at the complexity of overpaid Premier League footballers and how they might be treated if they were skus in a business. There is a cost to having an sku on your books whether this is soup, a shampoo or a…

If you are honest you have probably sat bored in an airport lounge waiting for your inevitably delayed flight and listened in on a conversation. If the discussion topic is not one you are familiar with it can be as if you are listening to speech in…

Ok, now back on line after the holidays and some demanding project work. One of the first catch-up meetings I have had this year was with an FMCG MD. No name of course, but this is a medium sized player with a broad European base and I have…

I have been talking to a number of supply chain executives during the last few weeks and something of a theme has emerged. The theme is the need for highly skilled supply chain resource, available at short notice, with the flexibility to switch off…